The times: audience

what is the time's target audience

predominantly ABC1, over 35 and has a right wing political stance.

Well-educated and middle-class audience take an interest in national and global affairs and can understand and engage with detailed political reporting

Why is the front page of the newspaper important?

It is important in targeting the audience.

What elements are important in attracting the reader on the front page?

The choice and style of the main headline and central image.

What does the front page communicate?

The view the newspaper is taking on the particular story featured.

how does the newspaper appeal to the audience t

the newspaper appeals to the audience through its content and the inclusion of hard and soft news item, for examples the lifestyle supplement 'times2'

digital platforms

digital platforms reinforce the right-wing ideology of the newspaper, for example the editorial and opinion pieces and political cartoons.

this will appeal to younger audiences as they more updated with technology

a lot of readers of the times preferred a digital edition that, whilst having some daily updates, closely resembled the print format

the times letter page

• The Times letters page is culturally iconic and offers readers an opportunity to air their views and interact with the community of the newspaper. This page and the 'Comment' section of the newspaper reflect the readership and their interests and concerns

the values, attitudes and beliefs of the newspaper and the way in which they represent particular stories will resonatewith what

with like-minded readers who may have chosen this newspaper because of its right-wing stance. Readers will be made to feel part of the newspaper's community and that the stories and articles reflect their views. This audience will accept the preferred reading of the newspaper.

which theories can be used for audience in the time

- cultivation theory: Gerbner

- Reception theory: Stuart Hall

- End of audience theory: Clay Shirky

Cultivation theory - Gerbner

- repeated exposure to media messages affects beliefs and attitudes

- audience exposure to repeated patterns of representation, such as the partygate scandal, by newspapers may shape and influence their views and opinions of the world around them

- George Gerbner went on to say this depends on ehat the audience already believes

- newspapers function as opinion leaders and mediate the news for the readers with their political allegiance in mind. These views will therefore be cultivated and reinforced by the newspaper and its content

reception theory stuart hall

- the idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding audiences

- the idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded (dominant, negotiated and preferred)

- the producers of newspapers encode ideas in their publications that are to be decoded by their readers.

- active audiences who agree with the ideology of the newspaper will accept the viewpoint of the newspaper that is evident in its approach to stories and editorial and opinion pieces

- those readers who have a different political allegiance will have an oppositional response, disagreeing with the message constructed by the newspaper and will not buy nor read a publication that does not reflect their ideas and opinions

end of audience - clay shirky

- Audiences are no longer passive due to the way social media operates

- the concept of audience members as passive consumers is no longer tenable in the age of digital technologies

- this is because they have enabled the rise of the prosumer who can create their own content submitting stories as citizen journalist, offering an immediate perspective on news stories.